Maxis is bursting at the seams with creative people. Usually, that creativity is spent making awesome Sims games. Sometimes, it is channeled into art projects or landscaping or fine cuisine. Or, occasionally, that creativity gets diverted into mischief. I remember a lot of that mischief fondly, so I'd like to share just a few of the occasions when it found its way into someone's cube.

The Giant Beach Ball

Meet Manu! Manu made the mistake of being away from his office for a while during the middle of The Sims 3 expansion packs. Naturally, we filled his office with small beach balls. And a gargantuan, 12-foot-diameter ball.

And here's Manu, clearly able to work super-effectively with his new office arrangement. (I'm not sure, but I think he lost his office mate in the back somewhere.)

The Ghost Keyboard

Look closely at this setup...

This was our Art Director's desk on The Sims 3 World Adventures (now Art Director on League of Legends... Hi Adam!). He was rather minimalist with his desk, so one night I took it a step further for him by removing all the keys from his keyboard, and replacing his Wacom tablet with a photocopy.

Adam came in the next day, sat down, and tried to log into his computer. He "splashed" his keys across his desk and onto the floor (in his words), and then his brain had to understand what had just happened.

Various Cube Messes

Here are a few more random pranks:

Foiled!

Question: What do you get when you cross six Sims 2 Object Engineers with six large rolls of aluminum foil?

Answer: All of the below.

We covered the victim's entire office: floor, walls, ceiling, desks, cabinets, computer, coffee cup, phone, chair... We even took a picture of foil-wrapped feet on the foiled desk, then made that the victim's computer background.

The office with the lights off.

Now with the lights on. Notice we even covered the ceiling tiles. At one point, the team needed a rally to follow through with the ceiling and the floor, but it made a huge difference. This is the power of teamwork. (In retrospect, I'm a little bothered that we didn't do the underside of the desk!)

A box of Kleenex with a perfectly comfortable tissue to blow your nose with.

The victim's office phone. Still fully functional, if not a little tinny-sounding.

(I hope its okay to post comments since you are undoubtedly very busy)
Love the pranks! They are very funny, so thanks for the chuckle to go with my iced coffee. Found your site thanks to SimsVIP (site) .
I know how important it is to have a sense of humor & joke around sometimes. I have a family & used to play pranks on family sometimes. ( I did feel bad that a couple pranks had my boys unexpectedly cry-never meant that.)
While I am upset over things that went bad with the games, that never get fixed, it still has nothing to do with people letting off steam after hours & hours of long work (& stiff necks/backs).
It's human nature to most of us, and better ideas emerge from a happy mind.
Thanks for sharing the fun with us all! :D

Thanks for posting, and also for understanding. Regarding bugs, I'm sure you'll believe that the reason I work on games is because I want to make people happy. I want everyone to be happy and I want our games to be perfect, and I can't feel totally satisfied with my job until that happens. It's an impossible goal, but one that keeps me going.

Speaking of pranks that sometimes make kids cry... have you seen the Jimmy Kimmel "I told my kids I ate all their Halloween candy" video? It's hilarious in a twisted sort of way that maybe you'd appreciate after your accidental pranks-cause-crying incidents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQpbzQ6gzs

Well, thanks for reading, and I always appreciate thoughtful comments.

Reply

SIMplyTheBest

9/30/2013 02:59:44 am

That link was so funny, and cute!
Now I miss my boys being little.
My daughter(she's 21) watched it with me, we were laughing!
(& she loved the pranks posted here after I showed her).
A couple of the things I did to make my kids cry:
Played hide & seek, hid under kitchen sink, they couldn't find me.
Made a "mock up" of Mario Kart game, son thought it was real & opened it to find it empty. Of course I did buy it later, just didn't know he would cry. I'm the one that started them on Video games :D
Hope to see some good pranks in Sims 4 ;)

I refuse to give up my Sims 1, 2, or 3 games-even though I plan to get Sims 4.
They all have something different/special, despite the bugs.
Makes me sad when I hear people just "toss" the past games to move on to the newest. I love them all & have all of S2 & 3.